Runcorn Memories: Water works for town
WE may pay through the nose for our water supplies these days but at least we can relax in the knowledge that whatever comes through the tap will be perfectly safe to drink.
It wasn't always that way and even today the 21st century is not without its disaster areas such as Bangladesh and of course, certain African states, where a classic example is the once prosperous Zimbabwe, now totally impoverished and ravaged by outbreaks of cholera.
Such a disease was not altogether uncommon back in the early years of the 19th century and, as historian Bert Starkey tells us in his authoritative account of Old Runcorn, cholera even raged in the tiny cottages of the narrow lanes of the old Water Street district.
In Victorian times, the area was known as the 'Rookery', a crowded and unhealthy neighbourhood where typhoid, smallpox and diphtheria were endemic.
It was a report provided for me by regular correspondent Percy Dunbavand which led me to look further at the water supplies people coped with back in the mid-19th century.
The report, which appeared in the Weekly News in 1941, looked at the town as it was a century earlier and it noted that Sprinch Brook was the town's chief water supply. And those who could afford it paid to have it brought to their door by people prepared to carry it and sell it by the can full.
The Sprinch Brook flowed in an open stream from the Sprinch Field across the road near the Royal Hotel (now renamed) and into a creek known as the Old Gut.
At the time, Bert Starkey recorded, it was an overseer's job to see that the public had "a convenient watering place" but for several years the whole situation remained unsatisfactory.
By 1850 it had become blatantly obvious that the continued development of Runcorn depended upon the availability of an improved water supply for both domestic and industrial users.
The existing supply from the Sprinch, supplemented by water from a few wells, was totally inadequate for the needs of a growing town.
By the late 1850s the Warrington Guardian reported that a waterworks scheme was in the offing but it didn't materialise.
Not long afterwards came news that Runcorn's once-famous fountain at the foot of Bridge Street and High Street had been given by the Earl of Ellesmere.
It was constructed at the front of the building at what was then the offices of the town's Improvement Commissioners.
Water was conveyed from the Sprinch well to the fountain, which was surmounted by a large globular lamp. The fountain was seen as 'catering for the labouring classes of the community'.
The new fountain remained a local landmark for a great many years but did little to increase the town's water supply.
Finally, Runcorn Hill was chosen as the place for a new waterworks.
The plans were submitted to the Improvement Commissioners in July, 1861, but they were slow to take action.
It was not until August, 1864, that the contractors received instructions to start work.
The waterworks began operations in March, 1868, when water was pumped into a covered reservoir on Beacon Hill at the rate of 40,000 gallons an hour. Difficulties encountered during the construction of the waterworks involved an expenditure of nearly three times the original estimate.
But, from 1868, Runcorn finally had an excellent water supply. At the time, the old Free Press noted: "The water is sufficiently safe for domestic washing purposes (for which it is admirably adapted) as it is as soft as rainwater with none of the impurities from roof or atmosphere."
And the old fountain? When it was dismantled the sandstone blocks were taken to the waterworks compound on Runcorn Park but unfortunately, instead of being stored, they were dropped 100ft down a well and lost forever.
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